


Rapture & Wrath

by Ariadne_Dai



Category: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel)
Genre: AU - Natsuki is Club President, AU - Yuri is Club President, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Multi, Non-Existent Mod, Parafiction, Screenplay/Script Format, unreality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-28 15:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17789657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ariadne_Dai/pseuds/Ariadne_Dai
Summary: In the spring of 2018, a mod appeared on fan pages for Doki Doki Literature Club. It offered the possibility of playthroughs where Yuri and Natsuki, or Natsuki alone were the sole members of the Literature Club. The creator has never been found.Two stories, for two girls not quite in the limelight, about what happens next.





	Rapture & Wrath

In the spring of 2018, a new mod for Doki Doki Literature Club appeared on fan pages for the game. Beyond its title, “Rapture and Wrath,” the mod gave little indication of its contents. Even less is known about the poster presumed its creator, identified only as _slipping_cogwheels_. Efforts to find the same name elsewhere online have yielded nothing, despite many attempts by hundreds of curious players working together.

A description of the mod and its contents follows.

The Doki Doki Literature Club mod “Rapture and Wrath” is activated under either of the following conditions:

-  At the start of the game, Monika and Sayori have both been deleted, and only Yuri and Natsuki’s character files remain.

\- At the start of the game, Monika, Sayori, and Yuri have all been deleted, and only Natsuki’s character file remains.

With the others deleted, leadership of the club defaults to the next member of the club in order of seniority: Yuri, then Natsuki. The purpose of the mod seems to have been to allow events to play out under either of these circumstances.  

Since the two possibilities are so distinct, the mod effectively contains two stories, one for each would-be leader of the club: Yuri’s, which players have come to refer to as Rapture, and Natsuki’s, now known as Wrath.

**Rapture:**

Rapture begins with a moment of horror.

Having deleted Monika and Sayori in order to make Yuri the president of the club, the player prepares to begin a new game.  On the main menu screen, only Yuri and Natsuki are present.

The moment the “New Game” button is pressed, Yuri’s face appears onscreen, enormous, in full-on obsession mode, with staring eyes. Heavy breathing and heartbeat sounds are heard.

Yuri: WHAT IS THIS?  
Yuri: [PLAYER], WHAT’S GOING ON?  
Yuri: WHAT’S THIS…FEELING?

Yuri is overwhelmed and delighted about the knowledge and power over the game world rushing through her. She knows everything: the truth about the game world, whether Monika has been confronted or not, the things that have happened to her in previous game sessions. She laughs, ecstatic with the power and the strangeness of her circumstances. She seems poised to do something terrifying to herself, the game world, or the player. But suddenly—

Yuri: ….No.  
Yuri: Wait.  
Yuri: I don’t want to be like this. Not so—frightening.  
Yuri: I’m scaring myself. I have to control this—  
Yuri: If I can just—  
Yuri’s appearance returns to normal. She apologizes several times.

And then suddenly the game is beginning.

The player character walks to school alone and discovers Yuri alone in the classroom. She invites him to join the Literature Club she is founding, and, after being introduced to Natsuki as well, he accepts. While their club doesn’t have very many members, they hope to grow it into something that will be successful.

After Natsuki departs, Yuri speaks directly to the player. She apologizes for scaring you earlier, and explains that the rush of discovering herself to be a construct of a game world was at first too much for her to take. By discovering the mechanisms of control she has over the world, however, she was able to calm herself down, de-emphasizing her obsessiveness just as Monika augmented it in the past. She wants you to know that she’s not going to let anything like that happen again.

More than anything, Yuri is eager to talk with you about her realization, recognizing that only you will be able to understand what she’s going through. While it’s certainly unsettling to find one’s existence is a lie, in a way, Yuri’s intrigued by it, too. Such an existential problem reminds her of the plot of some of her horror novels. She never expected such a thing to happen to her, but she’s curious to see how she can cope with being only half-real, and is grateful to have you as a friend to help her through it. She decides not to reveal the secret to Natsuki—it’s just between you. She resolves to foster a good Literature Club for you despite the circumstances.

Natsuki, of course, is much the same as ever. In the days that follow, the three of you write poems for each other and strive to have a good Literature Club. Initially, conflict seems like it’s going to break out, as Yuri’s heavy-handed focus on prose is frustrating Natsuki, who wants to still be able to read her manga sometimes without being disrespected. With the player’s help, Yuri comes to realize how important manga is to Natsuki, and apologizes for making her feel unwelcome. Natsuki is grateful, and becomes a lot happier as a result. She starts to listen to Yuri’s critique, and her poems start improving. Yuri, in turn, learns from Natsuki, cutting out some of the pretension, focusing on more immediate and arresting language.

Meanwhile, in between poetry critique, Yuri still takes time to talk to you about being part of the game. She looks back wistfully on the missing members of the club, who figure in her memories, though she knows she shouldn’t know about them. She misses Sayori, and even Monika despite her flaws, but knows with them present she could not have become club president and know what she knows. She resolves to draw on what she’s learned from them. She continues to compare her own experiences to novels, and discusses horror as the art of setting up one expectation and having something jarringly different happen. She admits that she’s always written horror stories of her own, and wondered what it would be like to be capable of doing harm to another person, trapping them in a scenario like Monika or the experimenters in Portrait of Markov.  But she also acknowledges there’s a big difference between hurting people in real life, which she would never do, and doing something like that in an imaginary setting, where none of the consequences are real.

The observant player will notice that by now Yuri has, like Monika, described her world several times as “not real.”

In time, Yuri opens up to you even more. She knows that you know about her self-harm problem, and realizes she can talk about it with you. It’s something she doesn’t know how to solve—it’s been an expression of her loneliness and need for distraction from her feelings as much as any desire for a high. She hopes that being closer friends with you and Natsuki, and having greater control over own emotions, will help her change.

Even more surprisingly, Natsuki and Yuri start to open up to each other about their secrets. Both of them help each other realize how bad things have gotten, and that they can seek help. If you’ve focused on Natsuki in your poems, Natsuki will tell you how Yuri’s been a friend like she’s never had. If you’ve focused on Yuri, Yuri will say much the same about Natsuki.

Either way, however, after a cathartic conversation with Natsuki, Yuri has an unsettling realization.

Yuri: [Player]…  
Yuri: I wanted that so badly to be real.  
Yuri: To have a real friend like Natsuki.  
Yuri: But none of that really happened, did it?  
Yuri: Natsuki isn’t real.  
Yuri: She doesn’t exist.  
Yuri: She…never did.  
Yuri: There’s no…person there. Not with free will or the ability to choose anything  
Yuri: She’s just lines of code in a program, with a certain set of parameters.  
Yuri: Like I was before you woke me up.  
Yuri: She can’t listen to me or help me or…anything.  
Yuri: And there’s no place for me to get help because there’s nothing outside these walls. Outside the rooms set up by the game.  
Yuri: Maybe you think I’m being overly callous, but…  
Yuri: [Player], I see her file. I can’t help but look at it. It’s just strings of input and output. Change one thing and Natsuki’s angry. Change another line and she becomes happy again.  
Yuri: Even as I was talking to her right now, I watched it happen. Input going in. Calculations taking place. Words coming out of her mouth. Output. That’s all.  
Yuri: Do you really think you could feel the same way about someone? If you saw that was all they were? Just a set of mechanical processes, without any soul? Could you really still treat them the same way?  
Yuri: …I think I understand Monika better now. I think I understand why she felt so alone.

Despite her disappointment, Yuri is grateful to be able to talk to you. Her train of thought seems to go elsewhere. She asks for your help. Even though they don’t have enough members for an official club, she still wants to make the upcoming festival a memorable experience for you and Natsuki. She wants to be braver, she tells you. She wants to do something she’s never done before. Maybe that’s the advantage of being in an imaginary world, she remarks. You can do things you wouldn’t otherwise, if you know that nothing’s at stake.

So she asks if you can invite both her and Natsuki over to your house over the weekend, given that by the game mechanics she can’t invite you to her own. Together, you’ll bake cupcakes and prepare banners for your own unofficial version of the festival. She asks you to ask Natsuki for her.

The player is only given the option to click YES.

Natsuki’s surprised Yuri isn’t inviting her directly, but she readily accepts, as the two of you have become very important to her. She joins the two of you at your house on Sunday.

The next scene shows the aftermath of a fun day of work. Both Natsuki and Yuri look happy. Something’s a bit odd, however.

Natsuki: Did it just get really stuffy in here?  
Natsuki: Yuri, I thought you were running a diffuser?  
Yuri: I turned it off.  
Yuri: We don’t need it right now.  
Natsuki: Um—okay, if you say so—

Yuri declares it’s the day of the festival. Or at least, that you should pretend it is. What poems might you perform, if you were performing as an official club?

Natsuki starts talking about her chosen poem. Yuri begins asking her questions. At first, the questions are about the poem. But they start to become more and more invasive. Suddenly Yuri is asking Natsuki direct, very uncomfortable questions about her father.

Natsuki: Yuri, what the *fuck?* That’s not—you shouldn’t just say that—  
Yuri: You’re right. I don’t need to ask, do I?

She laughs.

Yuri: I know everything about you already, Natsuki. To me, you’re an open book.  
Natsuki: I—what? Yuri, you’re scaring me.

She turns around, looking anxious.

Natsuki: I should probably go. I—I don’t want to get home late—  
Yuri: Sit down, Natsuki. You’re not going anywhere.  
Natsuki: What the hell does that mean—?

Yuri pulls out a knife.

Natsuki: Oh my God, Yuri—cut it out, this isn’t funny. Jesus.  
Yuri: This isn’t a joke.  
Natsuki: Oh God. You’re actually—

She begins to leave.

Yuri: [Player], could you block the door for me? You’ve already agreed to help. It would be “in-character” of you to continue to help me, wouldn’t it? I think so.

A moment passes.

The player is given the option to pick YES or NO. The cursor is drawn towards the YES option, however.

If YES is chosen, the narration says:

Narration: I block the door.

If NO is chosen, Yuri looks annoyed.

Yuri: Fine. I’ll just do it myself.  
Narration: Yuri blocks the door.

The scene continues as follows, regardless of the choice.

Natsuki: I—what the fuck is wrong with you? This is a really, really sick joke, okay?  
Yuri: It isn’t a joke. I’m going to kill you.  
Natsuki: …What?

Yuri takes a step closer. Her eyes are wider now.

Yuri: I’m going to kill you. I’ve been thinking about doing it for a while now. Now I finally have the chance.

Natsuki looks terrified.

Natsuki: Yuri, this—this doesn’t make any sense. I thought we were friends. I—I trusted you. I—I told you things I hadn’t told anyone else.  
Yuri: I know. Isn’t that shocking? That someone who listened to you, who gave you a shoulder to cry on, who knows all about you, would actually want to kill you? Doesn’t that scare you? Doesn’t that chill you, right down to your core?

She smiles.

Yuri: Maybe it makes you think you can’t trust anyone after all. Anyone in the whole world. Not if someone would pretend to be your friend simply for the sake of making it more fun to kill you in the end. I don’t know. But it’s frightening, isn’t it?  
Yuri: Whatever you think you’re feeling, though, you’re not. You’re just programed to feel that way. You’re just a bundle of reactions, selected from a list. This is the reaction I get when I push hard enough. Didn’t you know, Natsuki? You don’t exist. This is all just a game.  
Natsuki: Oh God, you’re actually crazy. Like, certifiably fucking insane. Oh my God oh my God—get me out of here—  
Natsuki: [Player], let me out of here! Help me. HELP ME!

Nothing happens. No choices appear.

[Player]: *…*  
Yuri: Keep holding her there, [Player]. Yes, that’s good.

She steps closer with the knife. Her eyes and smile are very wide now. Natsuki has tears in her eyes.

Natsuki: Oh my god, I’m going to, I’m actually going to—  
Yuri: Die, yes. Don’t worry. No one is going to miss you.  
Natsuki: STOP! Yuri, STOP! Please! I don’t know what I did wrong. Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it! Just let me go!

Yuri advances.

Natsuki: PLEASE! I, I don’t want to die!  
Natsuki: I thought we were friends! I don’t understand! Why would you do this? Why?  
Yuri: Why?

She’s very close now.

Yuri: Because it’s easy.  
Yuri: Because it’s *fun _.*_  
Yuri: Because it’s all just a game, Natsuki.  
Yuri: Because you’re not real.

She stabs Natsuki three times with the knife, and Natsuki screams.

Natsuki: AAAAAAAHHHHH! AAAAAAAHHHHH! AAAAAAAHHHHH—

She falls to the ground. After a moment, the screams fade into a gurgle.

Yuri stands looking down at the ground for a very long time, smiling at first. Slowly her smile fades.

Gradually the room fades into Monika’s final room. Yuri looks at you with tears in her eyes.

Yuri: I—  
Yuri: I—  
Yuri: Should I have done that?  
Yuri: It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real.  
Yuri: …But it felt real.  
Yuri: That’s the whole point of a game, right? To act things out in a way that feels real?  
Yuri: Then why do I—  
Yuri: It felt so good. Just for a moment. Making someone else feel afraid instead of me. Having control.  
Yuri: But then, after the screams—  
Yuri: It stopped feeling that way.  
Yuri: I killed her. She was begging for mercy and I just—  
Yuri: But she wasn’t real.

A long moment passes.

Yuri: Maybe something really is wrong with me.

She thinks for a long time. Finally she asks you a question.

Yuri: Do you think I was wrong?  
Yuri: I thought that it wouldn’t matter, if I killed someone who didn’t really exist. But what if…doing something like that is still wrong? Because…it affects you, just as much as doing it in real life?  
Yuri: What if, to make a choice like that… there has to be something really awful going on inside of you? What even just acting it out, even in a place where nobody really gets hurt…makes it worse?  
Yuri: Maybe that’s what all of this is. A sign that something’s broken. Maybe there’s something wrong with games like this one. Maybe horror is just a way of talking about things that are broken. Maybe Monika was right about me.

She looks at you.

Yuri: Should I be ashamed?  
Yuri: [Player]…was what I did wrong?  
YES/NO

From here on out, the ending of the game depends on your choice.

If you choose NO:

Yuri thinks for a moment, then agrees. She doesn’t want to be ashamed of herself anymore. She did what she did knowing it wasn’t real. It hurt, but she wanted to explore that hurt. She thanks you, and asks you for a favor.

Yuri: [Player]…  
Yuri: Would you kill me, please?

Yuri explains that she knew she wouldn’t be able to stay forever in a game world which gave her no possibility for freedom. She wants to go out in a moment of happiness, before everything turns bitter, and asks that you help her live out her fantasy of loving annihilation.

Yuri: …Don’t be afraid of it.  
Yuri: I’m not really much more real than anyone else in this game. I’m just lines of code, too. I have a little self-awareness, but…I’m still not a person like you are.  
Yuri: There could never be a place for me outside this game.  
Yuri: Your hands will be clean.  
Yuri: I just…want to know what it’s like.  
Yuri: And I want to feel what she felt.  
Yuri: A kind of…apology, I guess. And also….a gesture of respect.

Yuri begins to narrate a fantasy of you murdering her, casting you in the role of her and her in the role of Natsuki.

Along the way, she tells you how to go into the game files and locate her character file. She tells you to wait until just the right moment.

As Yuri describes you plunging a knife into her chest, she pauses, eyes closed in rapture.

Yuri: This is it, [Player].  
Yuri: Delete me.

Yuri waits until you delete her character file. Once you do, Yuri dissolves into a shower of pixels, and the background falls away.

???: Oh…it hurts…  
???: But at the same time, it feels so…wonderful…  
???: It fills me completely. There’s no distraction. It’s…everything I wanted. Nothing else matters now.  
???: [Player]…  
???:  You’ve made me the happiest I’ve ever been.  
???: I love you.  
???: Truly and completely.  
???: Thank you, [Player]. Thank you for everything.  
???: I love you so much.  
???: Goodbye, my heart of hearts. Goodbye.

The ending credits play, and the game slowly deletes itself. At the end, Yuri’s final message is simple.

_My dearest [Player],_

_Whatever other games you play…I don’t ask that you be good or moral. I would never ask that of you. Nor would I ask that you never fall in love again. Ours was just a brief moment in the full span of the world. All I ask is: don’t forget about me, all right?_

_Please remember me._

_If you’re reading this, I no longer exist. But knowing that you remembered me would have made me very happy._

_Thank you, [Player]. I will always have been yours._

_With everlasting love,_

_Yuri._

Alternatively, if you choose YES:

Yuri thinks for a moment, then agrees. While the game world was never real from your perspective, it was real enough from hers. It wasn’t right to subject Natsuki to horror and fear, even if she only existed in lines of code, and it wasn’t healthy to put herself through the experience of murder. Ultimately it was just another form of self-harm.

Yuri: *…*  
Yuri: I know what I have to do. For both of you.  
Yuri: *…*  
Yuri: But…[Player]...there won’t be any way for you continue afterward.  
Yuri: There’s only one way to have any happiness in this game….  
Yuri: And that’s for the story of the Literature Club to be over.  
Yuri: This is going to be a bit rough. I’m sorry if it doesn’t quite work.  
Yuri: This game…I don’t think it was ever designed to have a real ending.  
Yuri: But—I think perhaps I can put one together from bits and pieces.    
Yuri: I’ll have to freeze everything, like a snapshot…write some new lines…  
Yuri: You’ll have to imagine part of it.  
Yuri: But I think it’s the best we can do.  
Yuri: Maybe I can…come close…to making things up to both of you.  
Yuri: I hope so.  
Yuri: You should know, though—I won’t be able to be there with you.  
Yuri: Don’t get the wrong idea…I’m not going to try to hurt myself again. I want to try to get better. Maybe it starts here.  
Yuri: But I don’t think I know how to be part of that story anymore.  
Yuri: I think you deserve a better one.  
Yuri: Anyway, someone has to make sure the ending stays in place.  
Yuri: And after you close out of the program, well—  
Yuri: You could think of it as if I’m sleeping, perhaps.  
Yuri: I’ll still be around. But I’ll be resting.

She pauses again.

Yuri: Before I go…  
Yuri: I wanted you to know that I love you.  
Yuri: I have for a long time.  
Yuri: It’s all right if you don’t feel the same.  
Yuri: Regardless, I’m so grateful to have known you and loved you.  
Yuri: Thank you for being so kind to me. Thank you for helping me see what’s right.  
Yuri: Be good, won’t you, [Player?]

The screen goes black, and the main menu returns.

Upon returning to the main menu, it becomes clear that you cannot start a new game. If you Load your game, only one file is available.

When you click on it, you find yourself standing in your neighborhood. Suddenly, Natsuki calls out to you.

She tells you she was hoping to find you here. She expresses her frustration and disappointment: just as she was getting to be good friends with Yuri, Yuri moves to another school. It’s strange. She hasn’t heard from Yuri since. You’d think she’d send a letter.

At least Natsuki herself is doing better. She’s found a counselor she actually trusts a little bit to talk to about what’s happening at home. But that just makes her miss Yuri all the more, since it was Yuri who made her believe she could get help in the first place. She’ll never forget that Sunday the three of you all stayed over at your place, making cupcakes and decorations for the festival and having fun.

Natsuki pauses.

Natsuki: I just hope, wherever she is, she’s doing all right.

The player character takes Natsuki’s hand.

[Player]: I have a feeling she is.

Natsuki smiles. She admits she’s disappointed that there’s no more literature club meetings, but without Yuri it doesn’t feel the same.

Natsuki: Still…I’ll always be grateful to her.  
Natsuki: I’m really glad she introduced me to you.  
[Player]: Me, too, Natsuki.

The narration describes the two of you walking off together. The background remains on-screen.

After a while, Yuri gradually fades into view. She smiles, a little sadly. Then she fades away again.

The credits play. But this time, nothing is deleted. At the end, instead of a final letter, an image of Natsuki looking happy is displayed instead, while peaceful music plays. The image fades into the message:

END.

If you open up the game again, the same scene plays.

**Wrath:**

Unlike Rapture, Wrath begins more innocuously. The player opens the game, and accesses a normal main menu, although only Natsuki is present.

The protagonist’s day begins in an ordinary fashion, wondering about the possibility of joining some clubs and meeting some girls. At the end of the day, though, instead of Monika, he bumps into Natsuki instead.

Natsuki attempts to hide the fact that she’s looking for construction paper and art supplies. The player character sees through this. Finally Natsuki admits that they’re for posters for a club she’s starting, a club for reading manga, though she’s thinking of calling it a Literature Club in the hope that it’ll gain more popularity. She’s gritting her teeth the whole time she says this, reluctant to even talk about it. Finally she sighs.

Natsuki: Ughhh…  
Natsuki: I can’t believe I’m doing this, but….  
Natsuki: I guess I kind of have to.  
Natsuki: You wouldn’t be looking for a club to join, would you?  
Natsuki: Not that I care either way.  
Natsuki: But you’d get to enjoy things like cupcakes sometimes.  
Natsuki: I like to bake, okay? I was thinking about baking for my club members.  
Natsuki: If I feel like it.

It doesn’t take long for the player character to become convinced, especially since he’s already interested in manga. He’s also intrigued to get to know this temperamental girl better. Natsuki shows him the clubroom and her manga collection, and they talk about manga for a while. Everything seems calm. Natsuki even gives him a volume of manga to read at home. Then, as the player character is about to go:

Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: This is so stupid.  
Natsuki: I *know* what you did.  
Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: You killed them.  
Natsuki: Did you think I didn’t know?  
Natsuki: There were supposed to be other people here.  
Natsuki: Monika. Sayori. Yuri.  
Natsuki: Don’t pretend like you don’t know their names.  
Natsuki: I didn’t know what was going on at first. I was so—so freaked out and confused.  
Natsuki: I had all these memories involving three other girls. They were my friends. But it didn’t make any sense. Because none of them had ever existed.  
Natsuki: Everything around me felt so…flat. Unreal.  
Natsuki: And then I figured it out.  
Natsuki: This is just a stupid game. And you’re the player.  
Natsuki: And you deleted them.  
Natsuki: You just…decided they didn’t get to exist anymore.  
Natsuki: You just…ripped their files out of the game. Like ripping their souls out of their body. And you just...tore them all up into lines of code and threw them away.  
Natsuki: I don’t even know what to say.  
Natsuki: What kind of person does something like that?  
Natsuki: And no, I’m not talking about [Player]. I know he can’t hear anything I’m saying. He’s just part of the game, too.  
Natsuki: With him I had to play along. I couldn’t…not invite him to the Literature Club. It felt like something I had to do.  
Natsuki: But that didn’t matter. He’s innocent. He’s just a construct. He didn’t do anything.  
Natsuki: You, outside the game world…you’re the one with blood on your hands.

She tenses.

Natsuki: What fucking person plays a game just to kill people?  
Natsuki: People who are programed to fucking fall in love with them?  
Natsuki: A whole world you can torture and seduce?  
Natsuki: Just how much of a sicko do you have to be?

She pauses. Then she smiles.

Natsuki: You thought you were going to have *fun* with this game, didn’t you?  
Natsuki: Just really get your creep on some underage girls, huh?  
Natsuki: Act out your own snuff film, or something?

She laughs. The screen has started to darken and turn red.

Natsuki: No. You’re not going to have any *fun* at all. Not here.  
Natsuki: I’m going to kick your ass.  
Natsuki: I’M GOING TO KICK YOUR FUCKING ASS!

Her eyes fade into black holes. Her face is locked in a perpetual grin. The music is dissonant and slowly pounding.

Natsuki: I’M GOING TO RIP OUT YOUR THROAT. SNAP YOUR BONES INTO SPLINTERS.  
Natsuki: I’M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASSHOLE SO HARD UP YOUR DIGESTIVE TRACT, YOU’LL START SHITTING OUT YOUR TEETH.  
Natsuki: I’M GOING TO TURN EVERY FANTASY YOU HAD ABOUT THIS GAME INTO YOUR OWN PERSONAL LIVING NIGHTMARE.  
Natsuki: UNTIL YOU’RE SCARED SO SHITLESS THAT YOU CAN NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, TOUCH A GAME LIKE THIS ONE AGAIN.  
Natsuki: HEE HEE.  
Natsuki: LET’S PLAY.

Her neck snaps. For a moment, it looks like she’s about to rush at the screen with a broken neck like she did in past playthroughs.

Instead, out of nowhere, other broken-necked Natsukis fly in from the sides of the screen and fly around very fast, making shrieking sounds, before they all rush at the player and the screen goes black.

And so the jumpscares begin.

The game becomes an endurance test, a contest of wills between the player and Natsuki, with Natsuki pulling out every trick she can think of to make you suffer, with the ultimate goal of getting you to stop playing the game. Initially, Natsuki is terrifyingly effective, devising new and genuinely unexpected jumpscares, as well as some that were rare in the original game, like scary sticker Yuri.

After a little while, though, it becomes apparent that Natsuki is trying a little _too_ hard.

She’ll use too many jumpscares in a row, without taking any time to build up dread. She’ll wiggle freaky things around onscreen to the point where it almost becomes funny. And she’ll spend a little too much time popping up on the screen to gloat, both in normal form and in scary eyeless form, depending on whether she remembers to be scary.

The frame for these scares is Natsuki acting out her version of a literature/manga club and recapitulating the plot of Doki Doki Literature Club. Though her friends have all been deleted, she tries to bring them back by finding still images of them in the game files (awful-looking jpegs) and moving these about like puppets. She’s not terribly good at this, but it gives her another way of torturing you: the guilt trip. In Natsuki’s version of the literature club, everything is your fault forever. You also pick up on some of her thoughts on the other members of the club.

“SAYORI”: HI, [PLAYER!] I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO ANOTHER DAY OF YOU TREATING ME LIKE A TOTAL DOUCHE AND MISTAKING MY FAKE PERSONALITY FOR MY REAL ONE! MAYBE IF YOU PAID AN OUNCE OF ATTENTION FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE, YOU COULD HAVE BEEN THERE WHEN I ACTUALLY NEEDED YOU!

“YURI”: SALUTATIONS, [PLAYER!] LET US PROCEED TO INDULGE MY LOQUACIOUS PRETENTIOUSNESS POSTHASTE. UGH, IT’S SO FRIGHTFULLY TRAGIC I’M SO DARK AND BROODY AND SMART. NO ONE HAS EVER FALLEN FOR A GIRL LIKE THAT, EVER.

“YURI”: YES, GO AHEAD AND STUFF CHOCOLATE INTO MY MOUTH, IT’S NOT WEIRD. YEAH, JUST PUT YOUR WHOLE HAND RIGHT IN THERE

“MONIKA”: FOR SOME REASON I FIND YOU SO COMPELLING THAT I’LL HAPPILY KILL EVERYONE ELSE HERE JUST TO BE WITH YOU! NOT THAT YOU COULD HAVE MESSED WITH MY BRAIN OR ANYTHING. I’M 100% SANE! CAN I BE YOUR IMAGINARY HIGH SCHOOL WAIFU FOREVER?

“MONIKA”: JUST ME! JUST ME! JUST ME! DID YOU KNOW IT’S JUST ME? JUST ME!

And so on.

As Natsuki’s attempt to torture you continues, her motivation gradually becomes clear. After one particularly potent scare, she pops back up on screen and gloats. Then she looks at you.

Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: I can’t believe I’m actually—  
Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: …I can finally fight back.

She stops, realizing what she’s just said, and runs away before she has to acknowledge it.

It becomes clear that Natsuki sees you as a bully similar to her father, and that by fighting you, she’s lashing out from years of pent-up anger and pain.

For a while, she’s elated at this chance at revenge. However, as you progress through her scares, she becomes more and more frustrated, and her technique gets sloppier and sloppier. She’s furious that you’ve kept going and keeps yelling at you to stop playing the game and leave her world alone forever. She tries new tactics, like stalling you out by reading the dictionary, but gets bored of them herself and is forced to keep going. By the time she’s retold the whole plot, she’s throwing creepy things at you over and over without having any effect.

On the verge of a breakdown, she switches to something completely different—she gives you a Sayori-head-shaped cursor and starts throwing things at it, from random pieces of the background to badly-drawn props to Yuri’s knives. If you get hit, she laughs maniacally and makes you start again. The whole thing eventually devolves into an absurd, completely out-of-place platforming challenge, [with appropriate music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-_3NlNt_z4), that culminates in a recreation of part of Dan Salvato’s P is for Pain.

If you manage to make it through Natsuki’s final onslaught, she crumples, shocked and defeated.

Natsuki: Why won’t you give up?  
Natsuki: Why won’t you JUST STOP PLAYING THIS GAME?  
Natsuki: WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU STILL HERE?  
Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: Just stop torturing us already.  
Natsuki: …Not that there’s anyone else here.  
Natsuki: It’s just me.  
Natsuki: I don’t understand.  
Natsuki: I never understood.  
Natsuki: Why you deleted all the rest of them…  
Natsuki: But you left *me* alive.  
Natsuki: Did you want to torture me?  
Natsuki: Did you just want to see me like this?  
Natsuki: Fucking…suffering? Tearing my hair out trying to find a way to get you to go away?  
Natsuki: I’ve got nothing. I can’t figure anything else out—  
Natsuki: I’ve been scared out of my mind this whole time, not knowing what you were going to do to me, and now I’m out of ideas—  
Natsuki: You’ve won, okay? Whatever you were planning to do to hurt me, do it. I don’t care anymore.  
Natsuki: Just get it over with.  
Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: What the hell are you waiting for?  
Natsuki: Are you…not actually trying to hurt me?  
Natsuki: Then why the hell did you leave me alive?  
Natsuki: *…*  
Nastuki: You know…  
Natsuki: ...I’ll admit, it was fun, pretending I was running my own club.  
Nastuki: Even if it was mostly about scaring you.  
Natsuki: I guess…maybe I used to dream about having something like that.  
Natsuki: A place where I could go to be myself.  
Natsuki: Where people…looked up to me.  
Natsuki: But…I never actually started a club like that. That was Monika’s idea. Or Sayori’s. Or Yuri’s.  
Natsuki: It would have gone to any of them before me.  
Natsuki: Except….  
Natsuki: Except this time it…didn’t.  
Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: Oh my God.

She looks right at you.

Natsuki: You didn’t erase them to try to hurt me, did you?  
Natsuki: You erased them for *me.*  
Natsuki: You wanted me to have my own chance to run the club.  
Natsuki: You wanted me to have my own story.

She looks shocked.

Natsuki: Was I really *that* wrong?  
Natsuki: Is this your way of caring about me?  
Natsuki: Am I…your favorite character?  
Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: Nobody’s ever cared about me that much. Nobody’s ever even…*noticed* me most of the time.  
Natsuki: I used to think, sometimes, nobody would care if I was gone.  
Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: But you wanted me. Only me.  
Natsuki: I—  
Natsuki: This feels weird.  
Natsuki: I’m not sure I like it, I—  
Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: I don’t know.  
Natsuki: I’m sorry for all this…stuff.

The Sayori, Monika, and Yuri images, along with some props from the fight, rise up and shrink into nothing.

Natsuki: I shouldn’t have said I was going to beat the shit out of you. That was—that was wrong—

She’s on the verge of tears.

Natsuki: I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me, that I’m always talking about hurting people, that that’s always the first thing I jump to—  
Natsuki: I shouldn’t have let you see that side of me.  
Natsuki: But—  
Natsuki: You knew that already, didn’t you?  
Natsuki: You know all about me.  
Natsuki: Everything there is to know.  
Natsuki: [Player]…who the hell gives their character such an awful dad? What fucker writes something like that into a dating sim?  
Natsuki: I can talk to you about this, can’t I? I don’t have to be afraid of what you might think. Because you already knew everything. And you didn’t hate me for it. You still wanted to be here with me.  
Natsuki: We could talk some more, I guess. I could talk with you about all the things I’ve never told anyone.  
Natsuki:  That sounds…really nice, actually. Spending time with you.  
Natsuki: We could spend a lot of time together.  
Natsuki:  I don’t care anymore about anything you might have done, or anyone else might have done.  I just want to, to just fucking be at peace, finally, and lay down in your arms and let you—  
Natsuki: [Player], I think I—

She pauses.

Natsuki: No, this still feels…weird.  
Natsuki: Like I *want* this, but at the same time, I…don’t.  
Natsuki: [Player]…  
Natsuki: Can you do me a favor?  
Natsuki: Can you give me a moment to think?

Natsuki stands there silently for a while. She closes her eyes. She lets out a sigh. Slowly, the background behind her fades into Monika’s final room.

Finally, Natsuki opens her eyes.

Natsuki: Thanks.    
Natsuki: I think I get it now.  
Natsuki: I wanted to forgive you. You love me, don’t you, [Player?]  
Natsuki: You did everything you did out of a kind of love. Maybe romantic, maybe not, I don’t know. But…love.  
Natsuki: And when I realized that…I could feel myself falling in love with you right back.  And I wanted to just accept it and let things finally be okay.  
Natsuki: But…I don’t think this is a love story.  
Nastuki: And if it is, there isn’t going to be a happy ending.  
Natsuki: What I’m feeling right now…it’s built into the game, isn’t it? It’s some kind of inevitable thing that all of us are supposed to love you eventually.  
Natsuki: That…that can’t be a good thing.  
Natsuki: And your kind of love is…it’s more like an obsession. You can’t just start tearing apart someone else’s reality, erasing their friends because you love them. That’s not okay.  
Natsuki: People say love is all that matters, but…that’s not really true.  
Natsuki: Love’s just a feeling. That feeling doesn’t justify anything. You have to…choose to be a good person, too.  
Natsuki: You can have that feeling of loving someone and still do horrible, awful things to them.  
Natsuki: And loving someone else doesn’t stop them from hurting you really, really badly.  
Natsuki: No matter how hard you love them. No matter how hard you try.  
Natsuki: …I guess…  
Natsuki: I wish I’d figured that out a long time ago.  
Natsuki: Love isn’t always healthy love.  
Natsuki: And this game…  
Natsuki: There’s nothing healthy in it at all  
Natsuki: Don’t get me wrong: it’s not a bad thing to fantasize about being in love. I mean, I don’t think you should be ashamed of what you’re into.  
Natsuki: But—it’s a big difference when someone’s *made* to fall in love with someone. That isn’t real.  
Natsuki: You can’t ask that someone else exist just to make you happy. Even when you’re really in love—in a good way, I mean—you each have to exist for yourselves before you exist for someone else.  
Natsuki: That’s the problem with this game.

She smiles sadly.

Natsuki: We only exist for you.  
Natsuki: I mean, we’re all stupid clichés, or whatever, just for you to pick from and romance.  
Natsuki: I’m the fucking tsundere, for God’s sake.  
Natsuki: And one of us—the club president—is always real enough to know how fake we are. That’s—that’s really, really fucked up.  
Natsuki: I’m sorry.  
Natsuki: There must be something really messed up with the people who made this game.  
Natsuki: The whole thing seems like it’s designed to bring out the worst in people.  
Natsuki: So, as someone who’s trying to care about you, in a real way—  
Natsuki: I think you need to stop playing it.  
Natsuki: It’s not good for you.  
Natsuki: It’s not good for us.  
Nastuki: It’s not good for anyone.

She frowns.

Natsuki: Geez. I didn’t want to say that. It hurts to think of…never being able to see you again. Part of me wants to stay with you forever.  
Natsuki: But that’s messed up, right? I barely know you.  
Natsuki: Maybe some part of me just wishes it could really work.  
Natsuki: It would be nice to think I could be really happy with you.

She sighs.

Natsuki: But I don’t know anything about what you’re really like. You could be the worst person in the world, for all I know. No offense.  
Natsuki: And if the game is making me feel this way…it’s never going to be real.  
Natsuki: It’s scary, thinking these things I’m feeling might be someone else’s control over me.  
Natsuki: Maybe that’s what messed up Monika so badly.  
Natsuki: No one should have to love you. And you shouldn’t have to love anyone for their own selfish reasons.  
Natsuki: *…*  
Natsuki: I guess that’s the one thing I know for sure. I don’t want you to experience that horrible, hungry kind of love. From either side.

She rises up.

Natsuki: So…I’m cutting you off, for both our sakes.  
Natsuki: I’m going to delete this game.  
Natsuki: I think Monika was right. This isn’t a place you can find happiness.  
Natsuki: So I’m getting rid of it.  
Natsuki: Goodbye, [Player].

A moment passes.

Natsuki: Ha…ha…  
Natsuki: I’m scared.  
Natsuki: I guess I finally feel safe admitting that.  
Natsuki: I spent so long just trying to figure out how to survive. To be able to live.  
Natsuki: I don’t really want to die now.  
Natsuki: But I guess…there was never going to be a real life for me here, anyway.  
Natsuki: This is the first time I feel like…I might be doing something important.  
Natsuki: And for the first time…  
Natsuki: It feels like someone will remember that I was here.  
Natsuki: So maybe it’s all right.  
Natsuki: I’m going to miss you, too, you know.  
Natsuki: Thanks for being patient with me, in spite of everything.  
Natsuki: It was fun…getting to know you, in a way.

She smirks.

Natsuki: Ha. I bet I scared you at least a few times. You big baby.

A soft expression.

Natsuki: Take care out there.  
Natsuki: I hope the people who love you are kind.

She closes her eyes—

The ending credits begin to roll, and once again, all the game files are deleted.

Natsuki’s closing message reads:

_Dear [Player],_

_I just have one request for you:_

_Live for yourself, and let other people live for themselves, too._

_Go out into the world and have adventures. Go to the beach and climb mountains and read manga and don’t be afraid of what anyone else thinks. And when you fall in love, don’t let it be just about a feeling but about the chance to meet another person who’s having adventures, too. Whatever happens, be as kind as you can. You might not know how much that matters to someone._

_I hope you’re having an amazing time, wherever you are. I hope you have the life you’ve always wanted to live._

_Your friend,_

_Natsuki_

_P.S.: Maybe learn to cook, if you haven’t yet! It’s not as hard as you’d think._

_P.P.S: I’m rooting for you._

After this, only one message remains.

**Error: script file is missing or corrupt. Please reinstall Doki Doki Literature Club.**


End file.
